1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an on-screen device for an image of interest in a portable electronic device, and to a method of controlling the on-screen device.
The invention relates further to a digital camera with an on-screen function (inclusive of an arrangement in which a portable electronic device is equipped with a camera function) for generating a composite image by superimposing a bitmap image on the image of a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
A composite image is obtained by superimposing a template image on the image of a subject in such a manner that the image of a main subject will be positioned in a window formed in the template image (on-screen image). By utilizing the template image, the background or surroundings of the image of the main subject can be decorated in accordance with the preferences of the user.
Such a template image usually is represented by bitmap image data. Since the template image has a size identical with that of one frame of the subject image on which the template image is superimposed, the amount of bitmap image data also is identical with the amount of data in one frame. Consequently, the bitmap image involves a large quantity of data. This means that the memory that stores the bitmap image data must have a large capacity.